A former British army soldier has admitted he planted listening devices
in the homes of senior politicians in the north of Ireland, years after
the 1994 ceasefires and some still thought to be in use today.

Families of victims of state killings have announced that they will be
suing the British government, DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein’s
Martin McGuinness as the London and Belfast regimes again stonewalled
their demands for legacy inquests.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has announced that he will step down from
his leadership role as part of the party’s ten year plan. Mr Adams
indicated a time frame within ten years for his departure as party
president, and confirmed that it was a matter of not ‘if, but when’.

The 26 County Taoiseach Enda Kenny has agreed that an inquiry should go
ahead into evidence of corrupt practices in the sale of distressed
property assets in the North of Ireland, but is refusing a broader
inquiry into the actions of NAMA, the bank set up to handle such sales.

Sinn Fein has condemned a decision by Spain’s Constitutional Court to
back a ruling that Basque separatist politician Arnaldo Otegi cannot run
as a candidate in an upcoming regional election due to a conviction
against him for links to the armed group ETA.

Irish history is full of examples of policies intended to deter the use
of the Irish language while promoting English. But it is also full of
courageous men and women who strove to defend the language and music and culture of Ireland.

An auditor’s report has found that several hundred million euro have
been lost to the 26 County exchequer in a notorious billion-pound
property transaction as a recording emerged of a central figure in the
deal apparently receiving a bag full of cash in a Belfast car park.

A judicial review is being heard in connection with the discovery that
the British Crown forces concealed the truth about the suspected
military killing of a woman in west Belfast for more than 40 years.

The Dublin government is the subject of anger and ridicule after it
defended illegal tax dodges by multinational corporations and rejected
a European ruling that it receive up to 13 billion euro in unpaid taxes
from US corporation, Apple.

A Sinn Fein councillor and 17 party activists have quit the party in
response to its treatment of Daithi McKay, a party Assembly member who
was forced to resign his seat last month over his contacts with loyalist
Jamie Bryson.

The scandal over the Dublin government’s failure to collect tax from US
multinationals has refocused attention on its favourable treatment of
international ‘vulture funds’ who purchased large property asset
portfolios following the 2008 economic crisis.